ARTICLES ABOUT FALLON BY DATE - PAGE 3

There was a lot of curiosity in the premiere week of Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show," and that includes nearly 2 million viewers who caught up within a few days via DVR playback. As a result, the venerable NBC program delivered its largest audience -- 10.42 million -- since the final week of Johnny Carson as host in 1992. In Nielsen's preliminary "live plus three day" results released Thursday, "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" padded its earlier-reported same-night numbers for the week of Feb. 17-21 -- growing 29% from a 2.8 "live plus same-day" rating in adults 18-49 to a 3.6 with three days of time-shifted viewing included.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today joked about trying to get out of jumping into icy Lake Michigan this weekend with TV personality Jimmy Fallon and said he told the late-night host not to bother to bring sunscreen. Emanuel pledged to take part in the annual polar plunge if Chicago children read more than two million library books, but cracked that he wants evidence that benchmark was actually reached before he takes a dip Sunday, when it could be snowing with the temperature around 20 degrees.

Jimmy Fallon needs help. Now that Fallon, the new "Tonight Show" host, has accepted Mayor Rahm Emanuel's challenge to take the Chicago Polar Plunge on Sunday, the least we can do is to offer the poor lad some survival tips. For counsel, I turned to Jim Sheahan, 67, hard-core polar plunger. He's also a past president of the organization that raises money for and runs Special Olympics Chicago, which in turn hosts the fundraising plunge. Our conversation is slightly abridged here.

On the heels of its dominant delivery in latenight during the Olympics, NBC picked up where it left off Monday night as " The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon " and the premiere of "Late Night With Seth Meyers" handily won their timeslots and were the night's top two programs. "Meyers," in fact, logged the highest "Late Night" overnight on a Monday since 2005. SEE ALSO: Review: 'Late Night with Seth Meyers' http://variety.com/2014/tv/reviews/tv-review-late-night-with-seth-meyers-1201119083/ In Nielsen's metered-market overnights, "Tonight" averaged a 4.5 household rating/12 share, followed in the 11:35 p.m. timeslot by CBS' " Late Show With David Letterman " (2.2/6)

When Jimmy Fallon called himself “Swimmy Fallon” on Twitter Monday, it became official: He had warmed to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's challenge and will join the mayor in taking a charity dip in Lake Michigan Sunday. Hey @jimmyfallon , got this for you. See, I told you, the City of Big Shoulders has your back. -MRE #jimmyplungewithus pic.twitter.com/f8p58xjwJJ - ChicagosMayor (@ChicagosMayor) February 21, 2014 By entering cold water on a cold day, the New York-based host of “The Tonight Show” will stand up to Emanuel, earn his new show free publicity in the nation's third largest city and help a good cause.

The real test for Jimmy Fallon comes next week and beyond, but there's no denying that the new host of "The Tonight Show" delivered a strong first-week performance. Friday's edition of the show -- which featured Justin Timberlake, who is known for doing great sketches with Fallon -- delivered 8.77 million viewers and a 2.9 rating in adults 18-49, the highest mark in the key demo since Fallon's debut outing on Monday. Fallon's premiere week was, of course, buoyed by Olympic-size lead-ins, a strategic decision in the timing of "The Tonight Show" handoff that has paid off handsomely for NBC , even if Winter Olympics ratings overall have been mostly ho-hum.

UPDATE: In "fast official" Nielsen estimates, NBC's " The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon " averaged a 2.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 7.69 million viewers overall -- the show's best scores in both categories since its Monday premiere. Thursday's rating is up 8% vs. the 2.4 for Wednesday and 13% higher than the 2.3 for Tuesday. Excluding the recent finale of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, " the 7.69 million is the largest audience for a Thursday episode of "Tonight" in nearly five years (since an appearance by President Obama in March 2009)

NBC's " The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon " had another easy time of it in the ratings race Tuesday, beating the combined tallies of its ABC and CBS competitors and retaining three-fourths of its premiere audience, according to preliminary figures. Total-viewer estimates will be made available later today, but Tuesday's hour of "Tonight Show," again starting at midnight instead of the typical 11:35 p.m. due to the Olympics, averaged a 5.3 household rating/15 share in the 56 local markets metered by Nielsen.

Starting his “Tonight Show” hosting tenure Monday, Jimmy Fallon proved he can snag A-listers and, in the early going, ratings. The numbers that came out Tuesday showed him crushing the competition, at least for now. But his moments of real, almost awkward humility during a scattershot hour of television made you wonder if he will rise to the occasion of taking over one of television's most storied franchises or be stifled by it. Welcoming...

LOS ANGELES, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Jimmy Fallon's debut as the host of NBC's "Tonight Show" drew 11.3 million viewers, network NBC said on Tuesday, making it the second most-watched episode of the late-night talk show in the past five years. Fallon's premiere on NBC's flagship late-night program failed to top the farewell episodes of Jay Leno on Feb. 6 and in 2009, but eclipsed the audience that tuned in to watch Conan O'Brien begin his short, ill-fated stint as host. Fallon, 39, welcomed actor Will Smith and Irish band U2 as his first official guests, and the show also featured appearances from the likes of comedian Tina Fey, actresses Lindsay Lohan and Sarah Jessica Parker, and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.